Home Office

Immigration: Afghanistan

Baroness Coussins: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) Afghan interpreters, and (2) members of their immediate families, have been relocated to the UK under (a) the ex gratia redundancy scheme, and (b) the intimidation policy.

Lord Bates: Up to the end of November, 230 Afghan locally engaged civilians along with 297 members of their families have been relocated to the UK under the ex gratia redundancy scheme.No locally engaged civilians have been relocated to the UK under the current intimidation policy. One former staff member was relocated to the UK under a previous version of the policy.

Offenders: Literacy

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the relationship between criminal offending and literacy levels.

Lord Bates: There is no single factor which explains crime. As the Home Secretary has said, the evidence suggests that there are six main drivers of crime: alcohol; drugs; the effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System; opportunity; profit; and character. Character, or an individual’s propensity to commit crime, appears to be influenced by a range of social and environmental influences as they grow up. However, the Home Office has made no specific assessment of the relationship between crime and literacy levels.The most recent crime statistics published by the Office for National Statistics showed that overall crime fell by 8% in the year to June 2015, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Crime has now fallen by more than a quarter since June 2010, with just over 2.9 million fewer crimes a year.

Turkey: Refugees

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the £275 million offered by the Prime Minister to Turkey "to secure its southern border" will be spent; whether that funding is intended to stop refugees entering Turkey in advance of any general ceasefire or peace agreement; and how that expenditure will be verified.

Lord Bates: Turkey is a key partner in the response to the migration crisis and we should commend its generosity in hosting over 2.2m refugees from Syria and Iraq. Acknowledging this pressure, the EU has recently agreed an Action Plan with Turkey. Within this and building on the UK’s existing funding, our contribution of up to £275m (part of a wider European package of €3 billion) will be spent helping Turkey address the consequences of the Syria conflict. This funding will help control the flow of migrants to the EU from Turkey and improve education, health and labour rights for Syrian refugees in Turkey addressing potential push factors for further migration. Implementation of the funding will be jointly overseen by the European Commission and the Turkish government through the establishment of an EU-Turkey high-level working group on migration.

Domestic Service: Migrant Workers

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the recommendations of the independent reviewer of the overseas domestic worker visa will be implemented.

Lord Bates: The Government is considering carefully the recommendations of James Ewins and will announce its response in due course.

Immigrants: Detainees

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the Resolution of the House of Commons of 10 September calling on them to implement the recommendations of the report of the Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom, by the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Refugees and Migration.

Lord Bates: Detention plays a vital role in maintaining effective immigration control and there are safeguards in place to prevent unnecessary or arbitrary detention.Turning to the principal recommendations of the APPG report, though a common misconception, we cannot detain indefinitely under immigration powers. There are significant, long standing and highly effective protections for individuals against indefinite detention in the current system. A statutory limit is therefore not necessary.An arbitrary time limit would potentially allow criminals and non-compliant individuals to play the system knowing that if they refuse to cooperate with removal for long enough they will be released.The Home Office is conducting detailed analysis of the use of immigration detention including looking at the checks and balances in the systems to ensure that there is a more efficient and more effective process so that people are removed more swiftly.The Home Secretary commissioned an independent review of the policies and operating procedures that have an impact on detainee welfare earlier this year. Stephen Shaw CBE, former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales, undertook the review and has recently submitted his report. The report will be published by laying it before Parliament, alongside the Government’s response to its recommendations, before the Lords Committee stage for the Immigration Bill.